Estate Planning is simply having a written plan that indicates where your assets – savings, retirement accounts, real estate, and any other assets of value – will go upon ones passing.
In Illinois this written plan needs to be typed, it cannot be hand written. I have had new clients in an initial appointment show me the hand written document they may well have had for some years, and I have unfortunately had to tell them that under Illinois law it is not valid.
There are also specific things in either a Will or a Living Trust that Illinois law requires as to signatures, witnesses, and the like. Please contact me so that we may discuss your needs.
While there is no legal requirement in Illinois that a Lawyer has to be hired by a home seller, as a practicality it is nearly impossible and certainly ill-advised to represent oneself. There are many documents that need to be drafted, almost all of them fairly complex and detailed. Additionally, the negotiations that often occur […]
When I meet with prospective Estate Planning clients for the first time, it is very common for most people to believe that an effective Estate Plan must be complicated. This is generally not the case. A well drafted document – whether it is a Will or a Living Trust – should be not only legally […]
This unfortunately happens far too often. As people age, sometimes their ability to safeguard their assets diminishes. Fortunately there are laws to protect senior citizens, and each case of potential financial abuse is unique based on the facts at work. Parents, aunts/uncles or close friends who are seniors may often be reluctant to share information […]
If you have a living trust in place, it can probably be amended. It is, however, completely dependent on whether it is what is known as a Revocable Trust. The majority of Trusts are revocable in nature, which is the legal wording used to also indicate that they are amendable, or can be changed. This […]